Edit css stylesheet in child theme

Thanks Calvin – I will work on your suggestions tomorrow, but know that they are greatly appreciated!

Sincerely!

I’m not convince that the actual file permissions is the problem. It seems as if someone has deliberately set up your site to prevent others from modifying themes using the theme editor. I just tried something on my test installation. I used FileZilla to check the permissions on my theme-editor.php file. The permissions was set to 604 (Read/write owner, Read public). I changed the permissions to 000 (no permissions for anyone) and when I went to my dashboard to access the theme editor, I got the message Access denied. Plus, changing the permissions did not cause the Editor entry to disappear from the Appearance menu, which I wouldn’t expect to happen. That is, the presence of the Editor menu item shouldn’t have anything to do with file permissions. Are you the original developer of the site? Can you post a link to your site? (I should have asked that last question earlier).

CrouchingBruin – Yes, I am the original developer of the site. The site is https://WalnutCreekHOA.com
I really appreciate everyone’s ideas and am looking into each as they are suggested. Let me know if you should see something when exploring! Thanks

Your site looks OK on first glance, no sign that it’s been hacked. There are closing braces (}) missing from a couple of your CSS rules in your child theme style.css file (the next-to-last rule for .widget-title and the last rule for #site-generator), but those wouldn’t have an effect on what you are seeing.

There is one other possibility. Some hosts have a feature where they take care of your WordPress core installation, i.e., they set up WordPress and update it as needed. I think GoDaddy has such a feature (although you can do a manual installation on your own if you want). Did your host install WordPress for you or did you manually install it using FTP? If your host maintains your WordPress core, then you might try contacting them and letting them know that you can’t access the theme editor. Maybe they disabled the theme editor on all of the WP sites that they maintain for whatever reason.

If you know how to use an FTP application like FileZilla, you can inspect the properties of the theme-editor.php file on your site to see what the permissions are. If you’re not familiar with an FTP client, your host should have some sort of control panel that will allow you to see the permissions on the file. It will be in the /wp-admin folder.

I am awaiting a reply (4 hours so far) from the hosting company before I do anything too drastic. I have FileZilla, but looks like I need to do a bit of learning. Thanks again. Will keep you both posted!

Still waiting after 8 hours from my web host. Anyone know of a great host with great support? This MPC Network thing gets worse every time I need help and their answers are always so vague. Also, if I switch hosts, is there a way to not have to pay the original web hosting company every year to renew the domain name?

Hey there guys,

Hope you both well! ??

is there a way to not have to pay the original web hosting company every year to renew the domain name

Domain name renewal fee is normal (annually or if you pay for more than one year). If you want to use same domain but other accredited registrar then you want a Domain Transfer. I suggest you contact the domain registrar you want then let them help you. ??

Take care,
Calvin

wchoa
I am in the process of changing host and would recommend GoDaddy. They have support available 24/365! Their website shows the wait time for online chat and for toll free call. Lots of documentation.

The host I am trying to move from does every thing online, ie NO phone number. They will just ignore me if they don’t know the answer or whatever. My domain expires tonight so I hope they do something then.

Once I get my domain transferred to GoDaddy, they will help me through this. The fee is renewable – cheaper/per year if choose multiple years.
Hope you get your problem solved!

I have been hosting multiple sites on GoDaddy since 2001 and really don’t have any complaints. This includes both a Linux hosting account and a Windows hosting account (I started with the Windows hosting account because my original pre-Wordpress sites had some ASP pages which I still use, and I haven’t converted them yet to PHP). Bluehost is another well-known hosting provider that I’ve read good reviews about.

With whichever host you select, if you have a choice, get a Linux server account instead of a Windows server account; WordPress users tend to have fewer problems with a Linux hosting account (although I seldom run into problems with my WordPress sites on my Windows account). With a Windows hosting account, you have to make sure that it supports the minimum requirements for WordPress. Some hosts may not support PHP or MySQL on their Windows servers.

Most of the major hosts will offer a WordPress hosting package, which is somewhat more expensive than plain shared hosting. I would recommend getting the plain shared hosting plan, instead. Most shared hosting plans will also come with an easy-to-install WordPress package if you aren’t comfortable setting up WordPress manually. If you do have the technical know-how (i.e., you know how to use an FTP client), I would suggest manually installing WordPress.

A shot in the dark here, but check to make sure you don’t have

define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true );

in your wp-config.php.

If I have that line in my config file and I try to directly access the theme editor, I get “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”

stephencottontail,

That was the culprit!
I have the iThemes Security plugin installed on my site and when I looked at the wp-congig.php file, this is what I saw:

//The entry below were created by iThemes Security to disable the file editor
define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );

So, I changed the word “true” to “false” and viola, it worked. I am looking for just where in the plugin I allowed that to happen, but the issue is fixed.

Thanks also to Calvin, CrouchingBruin and timoses for all you guidance. Guess now we all know how and why this happened.

I’ll close out the topic. Thanks all for you great advice!